1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to catalysts and processes for producing synthesis gas (i.e., a gas mixture containing CO and H2). More particularly, the invention relates to mixed and/or promoted metal carbide catalysts and their manner of making, and to processes employing such catalysts for the production of synthesis gas.
2. Description of Related Art
Large quantities of methane, the main component of natural gas, are available in many areas of the world, and natural gas is predicted to outlast oil reserves by a significant margin. However, most natural gas is situated in areas that are geographically remote from population and industrial centers. The costs of compression, transportation, and storage make its use economically unattractive.
To improve the economics of natural gas use, much research has focused on methane as a starting material for the production of higher hydrocarbons and hydrocarbon liquids. The conversion of methane to hydrocarbons is typically carried out in two steps. In the first step, methane is reformed with water to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen (i.e., synthesis gas or xe2x80x9csyngasxe2x80x9d). In a second step, the syngas is converted to hydrocarbons, for example, using the Fischer-Tropsch process to provide fuels that boil in the middle distillate range, such as kerosene and diesel fuel, and hydrocarbon waxes.
Current industrial use of methane as a chemical feedstock proceeds by the initial conversion of methane to carbon monoxide and hydrogen by either steam reforming, which is the most widespread process, or by dry reforming. Steam reforming currently is the major process used commercially for the conversion of methane to synthesis gas, proceeding according to Equation 1.
CH4+H2Oxe2x86x92CO+3H2xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
Although steam reforming has been practiced for over five decades, efforts to improve the energy efficiency and reduce the capital investment required for this technology continue.
The catalytic partial oxidation of hydrocarbons, e.g., natural gas or methane to syngas is also a process known in the art. While currently limited as an industrial process, partial oxidation has recently attracted much attention due to significant inherent advantages, such as the fact that significant heat is released during the process, in contrast to steam reforming processes.
In catalytic partial oxidation, natural gas is mixed with air, oxygen-enriched air, or oxygen, and introduced to a catalyst at elevated temperature and pressure. The partial oxidation of methane yields a syngas mixture with a H2:CO ratio of 2:1, as shown in Equation 2.
CH4+xc2xdO2xe2x86x92CO+2H2xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
This ratio is more useful than the H2:CO ratio from steam reforming for the downstream conversion of the syngas to chemicals such as methanol and to fuels. The partial oxidation is also exothermic, while the steam reforming reaction is strongly endothermic. Furthermore, oxidation reactions are typically much faster than reforming reactions. This allows the use of much smaller reactors for catalytic partial oxidation processes. The syngas in turn may be converted to hydrocarbon products, for example, fuels boiling in the middle distillate range, such as kerosene and diesel fuel, and hydrocarbon waxes by processes such as the Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis.
The selectivities of catalytic partial oxidation to the desired products, carbon monoxide and hydrogen, are controlled by several factors, but one of the most important of these factors is the choice of catalyst composition. Difficulties have arisen in the prior art in making such a choice economical. Typically, catalyst compositions have included precious metals and/or rare earths. The large volumes of expensive catalysts needed by prior art catalytic partial oxidation processes have placed these processes generally outside the limits of economic justification.
For successful operation at commercial scale, the catalytic partial oxidation process must be able to achieve a high conversion of the methane feedstock at high gas hourly space velocities, and the selectivity of the process to the desired products of carbon monoxide and hydrogen must be high. Such high conversion and selectivity must be achieved without detrimental effects to the catalyst, such as the formation of carbon deposits (xe2x80x9ccokexe2x80x9d) on the catalyst, which severely reduces catalyst performance. Accordingly, substantial effort has been devoted in the art to the development of catalysts allowing commercial performance without coke formation.
A number of process regimes have been described in the art for the production of syngas via catalyzed partial oxidation reactions. The noble metals, which typically serve as the best catalysts for the partial oxidation of methane, are scarce and expensive. The widely used, less expensive, nickel-based catalysts have the disadvantage of promoting coke formation on the catalyst during the reaction, which results in loss of catalytic activity. Over the past two decades the transition metal carbides and nitrides have been shown to exhibit catalytic properties similar to the precious metals. A. P. E. York et al., (Stud. Surf. Sci. Catal. (1997), 110 (3rd World Congress on Oxidation Catalysis, 1997), 711-720.) disclose the use of molybdenum and tungsten carbides as catalysts for the partial oxidation of methane to syngas. The reaction was done at temperatures of 1073xc2x0 K and 1173xc2x0 K and pressures of 4.0 bar (400 kPa) and 8.7 bar (870 kPa) using air at a GHSV of 5.2xc3x97103 hxe2x88x921. When the reaction was carried out at atmospheric pressure, catalyst deactivation occurred. Binary and ternary metal carbides of Mo or W and Group V metals are also disclosed.
Claridge et al. (J. Catalysis 180:85-100 (1998)) have described high-surface-area molybdenum carbide catalysts and tungsten carbide catalysts for conversion of methane to synthesis gas via steam reforming, dry reforming or partial oxidation processes. Maintaining elevated pressure during the conversion process stabilized the carbide and deterred catalyst deactivation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,843 (Slaugh et al.) describes a process for making a supported tungsten carbide composition for use as a catalyst. The process includes impregnating an oxidic support material with a solution of a tungsten salt, converting the tungsten to a nitride and treating the supported tungsten nitride with a carbiding gas mixture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,842 (Slaugh et al.) describes a process for preparing a supported molybdenum carbide catalyst by impregnating a porous support with a solution of hexamolybdenum dodecachloride, drying, and heating in a carbiding atmosphere. U.S. Pat. No. 4,326,992 (Slaugh et al.) describes another process for preparing a supported molybdenum carbide catalyst. In this process an ammonium hydroxide solution of molybdic acid is applied to a porous support, dried and heated in a carbiding atmosphere. U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,716 (Triplett et al.) discloses a supported non-oxide metal carbide-containing catalyst that includes an oxide support, a passivating layer, and a non-oxide metal ceramic catalytic component such as tungsten carbide or molybdenum carbide, or another Group VI metal carbide or nitride.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,451,557 and 5,573,991 (Sherif) disclose other processes for forming a metal carbide catalyst such as tungsten carbide or another Group VIB transition metal carbide. U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,544 (Takaya et al.) describes a catalyst for catalyzing the synthesis of methane from CO and H2. This catalyst comprises a nickel-molybdenum alloy and a molybdenum carbide supported on a porous carrier. Other metal carbide catalysts are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,445 (Finch), U.S. Pat. No. 1,930,716 (Jaeger), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,041 (Boudart et al.).
There is a continuing need for better catalysts for catalyzing the partial oxidation of methane, which are capable of high conversion of reactant gas and high selectivity of CO and H2 reaction products.
The present invention provides mixed and/or promoted metal carbide catalysts which overcome many of the shortcomings of previous catalysts used to catalyze the partial oxidation of light hydrocarbons, such as methane. Also provided are processes for making the new catalysts and processes for producing synthesis gas using these catalysts. Excellent levels of conversion of methane and oxygen reactants and selectivities for CO and H2 products by a predominantly, or net partial oxidation reaction are achievable by the new catalysts and process. The term xe2x80x9cnet partial oxidationxe2x80x9d means that the partial oxidation reaction of Equation 2 predominates over reforming reactions, and the ratio of the H2:CO products is preferably about 2:1. Although not wishing to be bound by a particular theory, the inventors believe that the primary reaction catalyzed by the preferred catalysts described herein is the partial oxidation reaction of Equation 2. Other chemical reactions may also occur, but to a lesser extent, catalyzed by the same catalyst composition, to yield an overall or net partial oxidation reaction. For example, in the course of syngas generation, intermediates such as CO2+H2O may occur as a result of the oxidation of methane, followed by a reforming step to produce CO and H2. Also, particularly in the presence of carbon dioxide-containing feedstock or CO2 intermediate, the reaction shown in equation 3
CH4+CO2xe2x86x922CO+2H2xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3)
may also occur to some extent during the production of syngas, in which case the molar ratio of the H2 and CO products is somewhat less than the preferred Fischer-Tropsch stoichiometric ratio of 2:1 H2:CO.
One advantage of the catalysts and syngas production processes of the invention is that no appreciable coking occurs with use of the new mixed metal carbide catalysts, and eventual catalyst deactivation is delayed or avoided. Another advantage of the new catalysts and processes is that they are more economically feasible for use in commercial-scale conditions than conventional catalysts used for producing syngas.
In accordance with certain embodiments of the present invention a process for preparing a carbided metal catalyst for catalyzing the net partial oxidation of a C1-C5 hydrocarbon to form a product gas mixture comprising CO and H2 is provided. The process comprises combining a first metal compound that is an oxide, alkoxide or nitrate of Mo, W and Cr, the metal component of which comprises at least 50 wt % of the metal content of the carbided metal catalyst, together with at least one second metal compound (not the same as the first metal compound) that is an oxide, alkoxide or nitrate of Mo, W, V, Cr, Fe, Nb, Ta, Re, Co, Cu, Sn or Bi. The metal component of the at least one second metal compound comprises about 0.1-10 wt % of the metal content of the carbided metal catalyst. The process also includes reacting or activating this combination, or intermediate composition, with a hydrocarbon of the formula CnH2n+2 wherein n is an integer from 1 to 4 under relatively low pressure conditions (e.g., up to about 500 sccm). The hydrocarbon may be methane, ethane, propane, butane or isobutane, for example.
In some embodiments of the above-described process, the mixed metal intermediate composition is applied to a porous or gas permeable support. The catalyst and/or the support may be in the structural form of a gauze, monolith or foam, for example. The support may contain a material such as MgO, Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, titanosilicate, activated carbon, carbon molecular sieves, crystalline and non-crystalline molecular sieves, ZrO2, mullite, cordierite, ceramics and mixtures thereof. The metal carbides may be mixed with, deposited on impregnated into such materials.
In some embodiments of the process for making a carbided metal catalyst, a promoter is also included in the composition. The promoter may be a metal or metal oxide of the rare earths, alkali, or alkaline earths, or a combination thereof.
Certain preferred embodiments of the process for making a carbided metal catalyst also include flushing the catalyst intermediate composition with a continuous stream of N2 at a pressure of about 300 sccm and flow rate of about 5.0xc3x9710xe2x88x926 m3/s. While continuing to flush the intermediate composition, heat is applied to the composition at a rate of 2xc2x0 C./min to a temperature of about 600xc2x0 C., and then the composition is held at about 600xc2x0 C. for about 10 hours, after which it is cooled to room temperature. The process may include replacing the stream of N2 with a stream of 10% ethane in H2 at a pressure of about 500 sccm and flow rate of about 8.3xc3x9710xe2x88x926 m3/s and then applying heat to the composition at a rate of 1xc2x0 C./min to a temperature of about 700xc2x0 C. The composition is held at 700xc2x0 C. for about 24 hours, and subsequently cooled again to room temperature. The composition is passivated with a continuous stream of 1% O2 in N2 at room temperature and at a pressure of about 500 sccm and flow rate of about 8.3xc3x9710xe2x88x926 m3/s.
The preferred processes for making the new carbided metal catalysts employ molybdenum as the first metal compound and the second metal compound is a tungsten compound. In some embodiments the molybdenum in the molybdenum compound comprises about 90-99.9 wt % of the metal content of the carbided metal catalyst, while the tungsten in the tungsten compound comprises about 90-99.9 wt %. In some other embodiments of the process the first metal compound is a molybdenum oxide, alkoxide or nitrate wherein said molybdenum comprises about 90-99.9 wt % of the metal content of said carbided metal catalyst, and each said at least one second metal compound contains a different metal chosen from the group consisting of W, Cr, Sn, V, Re, Nb and Ta.
Also in accordance with the present invention are provided carbided metal catalysts for catalyzing the net partial oxidation of a C1-C5 hydrocarbon to form a product gas mixture comprising CO and H2. Certain preferred embodiments of the catalysts are prepared as described above.
Certain catalysts of the invention also include a porous support such as MgO, Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, titanosilicate, activated carbon, carbon molecular sieves, crystalline and non-crystalline molecular sieves, ZrO2, mullite, cordierite, ceramics or a mixture of these materials, which may hold the active catalyst material. Some catalysts of the invention also include a promoter such as a metal or metal oxide of the rare earth, alkali, or alkaline earth elements, or combinations thereof.
In some embodiments of the catalysts, the catalysts comprise a carbided metal composition containing a first metal chosen which is W, Mo or Cr and comprises at least 50 wt % of the metal content of the carbided metal catalyst. The catalyst also contains at least one second metal compound different than the first metal, and which is Mo, W, V, Cr, Fe, Nb, Ta, Re, Co, Cu, Sn or Bi. The second metal comprises about 0.1-10 wt % of the metal content of the active components of the carbided metal catalyst.
In certain embodiments, the first metal is molybdenum and the second metal is tungsten. In some of these embodiments, molybdenum comprises about 90-99.9 wt % of the metal content of the carbided metal catalyst, and tungsten comprises about 0.01-10 wt % of the metal content. In other embodiments, the first metal is molybdenum comprising about 90-99.9 wt % of the metal content of the carbided metal catalyst, and each of the second metal(s) is W, Cr, Sn, V, Re, Nb or Ta.
Another aspect of the present invention is a process for forming a product gas mixture comprising CO and H2 from a C1-C5 hydrocarbon by a net partial oxidation reaction. In some embodiments the process comprises contacting a reactant gas mixture comprising the hydrocarbon and a source of oxygen with a catalytically effective amount of a carbided metal catalyst, as described above. The process includes maintaining the catalyst and the reactant gas mixture at conversion-promoting conditions of temperature, reactant gas composition and flow rate during this contacting. In some embodiments the carbided metal catalyst employed in the process is a supported catalyst. In some embodiments, the carbided metal catalyst used in the process includes a promoter.
In some embodiments of the processes of the invention, the step of maintaining the catalyst and the reactant gas mixture at conversion promoting conditions of temperature and pressure during contacting includes maintaining a temperature of about 600-1100xc2x0 C. In certain preferred embodiments, the temperature is maintained at about 800-1000xc2x0 C.
In some embodiments of the hydrocarbon conversion processes, the step of maintaining the catalyst and the reactant gas mixture at conversion promoting conditions of temperature and pressure during contacting includes maintaining a pressure of about 100-12,500 kPa. In certain preferred embodiments, the pressure is maintained at about 130-10,000 kPa.
Some embodiments of the processes for converting hydrocarbons to syngas comprise mixing a light hydrocarbon-containing gas feedstock and an oxygen-containing gas feedstock to provide a reactant gas mixture feedstock having a carbon:oxygen ratio of about 1.25:1 to about 3.3:1. Certain of these embodiments provide for a reactant gas mixture feed having a carbon:oxygen ratio of about 1.3:1 to about 2.2:1; and some of the more preferred of these embodiments provide a reactant gas mixture feed having a carbon:oxygen ratio of about 1.5:1 to about 2.2:1. Some embodiments employ a reactant gas mixture feed having a carbon:oxygen ratio of about 2:1.
In some embodiments of the hydrocarbon conversion processes the oxygen-containing gas further comprises steam, CO2, or a combination thereof, and the process includes mixing a hydrocarbon feedstock and a gas comprising steam and/or CO2 to provide the reactant gas mixture.
The C1-C5 hydrocarbon comprises at least about 50% methane by volume in some embodiments of the processes of the invention, and in some embodiments the hydrocarbon contains at least about 80% methane. In certain embodiments the hydrocarbon feedstock and the oxygen-containing feedstock are both pre-heated before contacting the catalyst. In certain embodiments the reactant gas mixture is passed over the catalyst at a space velocity of about 100 to about 100,000 normal liters of gas per kilogram of catalyst per hour (NL/kg/h), and in some of these embodiments the space velocity is about 500-10,000 NL/kg/h. Some embodiments of the hydrocarbon conversion processes provide for retaining the catalyst in a fixed bed reaction zone. These and other embodiments, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent with reference to the following description.
Catalyst Preparation
Carbided metal catalysts useful for the catalytic net partial oxidation of methane are prepared by first combining compounds of at least two metals selected from the group consisting of Mo, W, V, Cr, Fe, Nb, Ta, Re, Co, Cu, Sn and Bi. At least 50 weight percent of the metal component of the carbided metal catalysts comprises Mo, W or Cr. The different second metal component can vary from 0.1 to 50 weight percent and is selected from the group consisting of Mo, W, V, Cr, Fe, Nb, Ta, Re, Co, Cu, Sn and Bi. Carbides wherein the metal components contain from about 0.1 to 10 weight percent of a metal selected from the group consisting of W, Cr, Sn, V, Re, Nb and Ta and from about 90 to 99.9 weight percent Mo are preferred. It is more preferred that the carbided metal catalysts have metal components comprising from about 0.1 to about 10 weight percent W and from about 90 to 99.9 weight percent Mo.
Preferably, the metal compounds are oxides, although other compounds such as alkoxides and nitrates may be used. The at least two metal compounds are then carbided by treating with a hydrocarbon, such as methane, ethane, propane, butane and isobutane, as described in the following examples. Carbided catalysts containing tungsten and molybdenum, together, are especially preferred for obtaining a high conversion of methane and high selectivity for CO and H2 products. The inventor has discovered that this mixed and/or promoted metal carbide catalyst, provides an unexpected, synergistic effect when employed as a syngas catalyst in a short contact time reactor.